Scoping questions
This guideline applies if you answer yes to any of the following:- Will your event have a presenter (off-the-cuff, on stage, or on screen)?
- Will your event use PowerPoint (or similar) presentations?
- Will your event include video content?
Implementation guidelines
Speakers
Presentation style- Speak slowly and clearly.
- Avoid acronyms and idioms.
- Use simple, direct language.
- Describe visuals on slides and other presentation materials.
- Provide sign-language interpreters both on stage and on an easy-to-see video feed from accessible seating. The interpreter should appear on the same screen as slides and video content.
- Provide hand-transcribed closed captions (auto-captions only as a last resort) on a screen easy to view from accessible seating — same screen as slides and speaker video.
PowerPoint presentations
Before the presentation- Publish a downloadable version of the deck before the talk starts.
- Include alt-text on all visuals.
- Add meaningful hyperlink text and ScreenTips.
- Don’t rely on color alone to convey information.
- Give every slide a unique title.
- Keep tables simple, data-only, with header columns.
- Ensure slide contents read in your intended reading order.
- Make embedded videos accessible with audio descriptions and closed captions.
- Use 18 pt or larger sans-serif fonts and sufficient white space.
- Use sufficient contrast for text and background.
- Run the built-in Accessibility Checker before presenting or sharing.
Videos
Signed languages- Videos with spoken audio should offer an inline sign-language interpreter option.
- For live events, keep interpreter video on the same screen as the main content or immediately adjacent on a secondary monitor.
- Any video with speech, sound effects, or music needs closed captions. If the platform doesn’t support toggling, burn them in.
- Open (burned-in) captions: large sans-serif font, opaque background, at least 7:1 contrast.
- Don’t rely on auto-captions. Validate before posting.
- Provide an open-loop system with headphones for audio description for guests with low or no vision. (Hearing loops transmit sound directly to hearing aids and cochlear implants.) Avoid asking users to run a second audio stream on their own device — lag causes cognitive dissonance.
- Videos with visual action not covered by narration need audio description.
- Use simple, concise, natural-language sentences.
- Identify the speaker and the scene.
- Validate before posting.
- Avoid overly loud audio. Louder is not better — excessive volume masks the environment for people with hearing loss and triggers sensory processing issues for neurodiverse guests.
- No flickering, rapid flashes, red flashes, or alternating patterns of contrasting colors.
- No stripes of contrasting colors.